10 INSANE Space Discoveries 2020 (Pt. 3)

 

there is something in the human genome  embedded in our dna that drives us to  make sense out of the world around us  we'll never have all the answers and  when science manages to explain  phenomena  all it does is act as a keyhole to open  up a doorway into a whole other world of  more numerous  and complex questions unbelievable new  discoveries are being made in space all  the time  reminding us of just how little we know  about the cosmos  number 10. martian meteorite  there is some conjuncture on the origin  of water found on earth  on one hand it could have come from  colliding comets and asteroid strikes  after the planet's formation  on the other hand water may just be a  naturally occurring by-product of the  immense forces at work during the birth  of a planet  a park of dark meteorites was discovered  in the sahara desert a few years ago  that may be able to shed some  light on this debate they were formed  4.4 billion years ago and they're the  oldest known  martian meteorites found on earth to  date there is evidence of oxidization  and a time when mars had a thick warm  insulating layer of hydrogen in its  atmosphere giving weight to the theory  that water is formed at the birth of  each planet  where it goes after though is still a  mystery  number 9. no friends studies at the  university of michigan have finally  revealed why some  massive stars become isolated in the  empty voids of the universe  stars that are eight or more times the  size of our own sun have been detected  sitting way outside the boundaries of  their galaxies  it was not previously known how these  stars form as there's not enough dust  gas and other primordial materials  present for the stars to form  as many as a quarter of all stars this  size are isolated which is much more  than just coincidence  it's clear that they're ejected out at a  half a million miles per hour  this could be caused by unstable orbits  of nearby stars or when a binary pair of  massive stars destabilizes as one  explodes into a supernova  shooting its buddy far out into the cold  dark of space  number 8 rocky wrinkles the earth is  bombarded by more than 100 tons of space  crud each day  unfortunately this falls in the form of  dust as small objects burn up in our  atmosphere and are vaporized  we rarely see evidence of impacts on the  earth's surface by small rocks  bennu is an asteroid 322 million  kilometers from earth that was orbited  by an unmanned spacecraft about the size  of a minivan the osiris-rex  it was tasked with taking images and  complex laser analysis to map out the  fine detailed topography on bennu's  surface  years later researching the scars  wrinkles and pock marks left by  impacts by small objects in space has  provided valuable data on collisions  that future spacecraft must be resistant  to  in order to survive long trips like the  manned mission plan to mars in 2030  number seven family portrait analysis of  recent gravitational wave data has led  to a redefinition of black holes  and more insight into how they form a  family tree so to speak  this information has enabled einstein's  theory of relativity to pass  even more rigorous theoretical tests 39  additional black holes and neutron stars  have been studied in fine detail using a  pair of four kilometer long detectors in  the u.s  gravitational waves from colliding black  holes were also detected  the data collected is revolutionary now  black holes are classified by mass  distribution  instead of raw size the first  intermediate black hole was detected  up until now we've either seen small or  extremely large examples  they can have misaligned spins  explaining the existence of orbiting  binary black hole pairs  the formation of micro or primordial  black holes is likely to have happened  immediately after the big bang  number 6. birthplace of the gas giants  unknown to most our solar system has a  very odd structure  the origins of jupiter and saturn have  given us insight into why  our system formed the way it did and how  it led to the life containing earth to  form  initially the sun was surrounded by a  rotating disk of gas and dust  early planets formed but as the larger  planets grew the orbits were changed  causing the arrangement to reshuffle  early jupiter orbited the sun three  times to every two saturn orbits  uranus and neptune were shaped by an ice  giant that was kicked out during our  system's infancy  this additional planet was located  between saturn and uranus and was  ejected due to an irregular orbit  ensuring that only small rocky planets  including our own  formed between jupiter and the sun  number 5.  fairy lights an instrument on nasa's  juno unmanned spacecraft have detected  intermittent luminous events as it  passed jupiter  bizarrely it looks like woodland  creatures such as fairies elves or  sprites dancing around in the upper  atmosphere  the flashes of light are extremely  short-lived and brief despite putting  out an enormous amount of light in a  very small time period  this is different to the northern and  southern lights here in earth where  cosmic radiation  interacts with the atmosphere the  sprites resemble a jellyfish shape and  are also different from lightning  strikes here on earth and that they're  not actually an electrical discharge  seeking a magnetic earth in which to  terminate  the sprites last less than a blink of an  eye and appear blue  or pink in an atmosphere heavy in  hydrogen  4. misdiagnosis a tiny planet discovered  in 2014 in the kuiper belt in the outer  reaches of our solar system dubbed  centaur  2014 og 392 is recently started moving  but we don't know why to date only 18  active centaurs have been discovered and  while they often have clouds of dust  particles and gas forming comet-like  tails  they're far too big to be comets and  have regular orbits  these many planets sitting between  jupiter and neptune are too cold for  water to change state to a gas and form  a tail  in this case however the spontaneously  activity has led astronomers to  reclassify it as a common  a classification made difficult by the  massive amount of time needed utilizing  a telescope to study them  as well as being exceedingly rare number  three  rare as hen's teeth astronomers have  identified one of the universe's great  rarities  a class of gamma-ray emitting galaxy  bc lasseteri was formed within the first  two billion years of the universe's  infancy  it's believed that the high-energy  ionizing radiation originates from a  supermassive black hole that seems to  always  be located at the center of such  galaxies the discovery has changed our  understanding of the evolution of  blazers and  galaxies in general 2. seeing the full  picture  the asteroid psyche is one of the  biggest asteroids sitting in the main  belt orbiting between mars and jupiter  it's 140 miles in diameter and is  extremely  dense consisting of very little rock and  almost entirely metallic  it's thought that psyche is a fragment  of a core leftover from a failed planet  formation  it's unusual in that it's made from iron  and nickel the composition of our own  earth's core  it's in the realm of possibility that  when psyche was in the early stages of  protoplanet formation it was struck by a  colliding large object  losing its molten rocky mantle and upper  crust nasa is preparing to launch the  spacecraft psyche in 2022 to study its  namesake in an attempt to further  understand how planetary cores are  formed  and a glimpse at the birth of the earth  number one  made of water not cheese new research  has shown that pockets of water could be  hidden on the moon's surface  permanent shadows may obscure  penny-sized fragments of solid ice  obscuring it from our view and keeping  it in its frozen state  the moon's surface is covered in craters  deep valleys and high ridges  a common misconception is that there's a  dark side of the moon which is only  partially true  though the moon does rotate it takes the  same time to complete a full  orbit of the earth 27.3 days from the  earth the moon appears the same its  surface unchanged over time  the nooks and crannies hidden from our  view could be full of ice having not  seen a single ray of sunshine for  potentially billions of years  there are over 15 000 square miles of  permanent shadows on the visible side of  the moon alone  and adding in the unvisible back half  could mean the moon has vast reservoirs  of  ice able to potentially be used for  human consumption or rocket fuel on a  future moon base